


A Piece Of Cake

by lethal_formula



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Bad Cooking, F/F, Fluff, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-30 22:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19413115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lethal_formula/pseuds/lethal_formula
Summary: Yoshiko's got Hanamaru for Secret Santa, and she's decided to make her a cake. There's just one problem: she's never made a cake before, so she's drafted Mari in to help.It's some surprise YohaMaru-centric fluff!





	A Piece Of Cake

Countertops covered in flour. Eggshells carelessly strewn about the place, some covered in flecks of icing. To the uninitiated, this might look like an explosion in a bakery, but it was actually the kitchen of the Tsushima household. Yoshiko’s mother could still just about make it out, underneath the ongoing culinary experimentation. Her brow furrowed, and she called out to her daughter and her friend. “Do you girls need any help?”

“ _Do not_ interrupt this arcane ritual!” came the fraught reply from Yoshiko, who was somewhat overselling the concept of making a Secret Santa gift.

“Yoshiko, don’t you think we should have accepted? Things aren’t going great,” said Mari, as she desperately searched for a whisk. “Besides, how are you this bad at cooking? I had your Tears Of A Fallen Angel, they were great.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never made a cake before. That’s why I asked for your help in the first place.”

“ _I don’t understand_ ,” came Mari’s reply in English.

“Well, I couldn’t ask Riko because of her piano thing. And I couldn’t ask Hanamaru to help make her own gift, so…”

“I see. It’s nice to know I was your first choice.”

Yoshiko was about to launch into a self-defence, before she caught Mari’s wink. “Actually, I really liked your Stewshine,” she admitted.

Mari didn’t expect that the first year might actually think she had any culinary skills. The truth was that she rarely cooked for herself – she was lucky to be living in a hotel, because between her studies and running the school, she barely had time to fix herself a proper meal. “You know that Stewshine is only good because of the ingredients, right? None of that means I have any cooking skills.”

“Yeah, but… I like hanging out with you too. You’re fun.”

“ _So sweet!_ Can you pass me the bowl?”

Yoshiko grabbed the bowl and handed it to Mari, who had finally found the whisk. The two girls had gone about things in rather the wrong order – Mari was overly keen to make the icing, so that was handled well before the cake was even in the oven. Now they were racing to get things in a better shape, but outside of their bizarre speciality dishes they rather lacked kitchen skills.

“Round, round, round it goes,” Mari sang softly as she mixed the ingredients together, holding the bowl in one arm as she whisked with the other hand. “This cake is going to be great! Hey Yoshiko, did you preheat the oven?”

“Oh crap!”

Mari turned to reassure Yoshiko, who was now charging forward to correct her mistake, but knocked the milk off the counter with her elbow as she did. Once again, Yohane was falling from grace – this time courtesy of a hazardous dairy spillage. She tumbled into Mari and with an almighty thud, wound up covered in attempted cake.

“Oww! Why does God detest me so?”

“Come on,” said Mari, offering a hand. “There’s no use crying over spilled milk!”

Yoshiko just rolled her eyes, too absorbed in her own misfortune to find the pun amusing. She looked back at the kitchen and, somewhat reluctantly, made a decision.

“Hey, mum…”

As Yoshiko poked her cake-covered head around the living room door, Yoshiko’s mother couldn’t help but let out a laugh, despite her attempts to stifle it.

* * *

“How long’s left?”

“About an hour,” Mari replied. “It’s a good job you bought too many ingredients, really. Are you feeling okay now?”

“Yeah, I just needed a shower,” said Yoshiko, as she took a seat at her computer desk. “I took a look at the cake on the way past, it’s looking good. I’m glad I asked for your help!” Mari didn’t have the heart to mention that she’d quietly accepted the help of Ms Tsushima while Yoshiko was cleaning herself up.

“Hey,” said Mari, “what’s the deal with you and Hanamaru, anyway?”

“We’re old friends from kindergarten. C’mon, you know that.”

“Yeah, but… How do you _feel_ about her?”

“Hmm… She’s always shutting me down when I get on a roll, and making fun of Yohane. And she’s so backwards! We can’t go near anything that uses electricity without her being all like ‘ _mirai, zura_!’ Zuramaru’s a nightmare.”

“So why did you decide to make a cake for her?”

“Well, she loves food but she doesn’t like the spicy stuff I’d make for myself.”

“Okay, but why not just buy a cake?”

“It wouldn’t mean as much if I bought it from a shop,” Yoshiko confessed. “I chose that recipe because I knew she liked the flavour. And I wanted to decorate it myself.”

“I see,” said Mari, shifting forward on the bed. “That’s a lot of effort to go to for a nightmare.”

“Ahem… even when they go astray, my little demons are precious to me. Zuramaru was one of my first, so she’s extra important.”

“Haha, I get it.” Mari backed off a bit – it was clear that Yoshiko still had some things to figure out. “It’s funny, the idea of a friend being a nightmare.”

“Oh, really? I’m sure Dia has probably thought of you like that before,” Yoshiko poked. “I _know_ you’d have said the same of Kanan not too long ago.”

“Huh… I suppose so. But we wouldn’t feel so strongly if we didn’t care a lot about each other. It’s the same for you and Hanamaru, right?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Mari thought for a moment, and smiled. “You know, I don’t think your luck is as bad as you think it is, Yohane.”

Yoshiko’s face scrunched up as she tried to figure that out.

“Think about it,” Mari continued. “I know everyone in Aqours means a lot to each other, but it’s a bit deeper with you two, right?”

“I guess so, yeah.”

“You only had a small chance of getting Hanamaru for this Secret Santa, but you did! And now you’ve got this opportunity to show her how much she means to you. That sounds pretty lucky to me.”

“Well, sure,” said Yoshiko. “But it’s Secret Santa, you’re not supposed to know who gave you your gift. I’ll go to a lot of effort and for all she knows it could be Ruby, Chika or anyone else.”

“I think she’ll know who it was,” Mari said with utmost confidence.

* * *

Yoshiko excitedly tore open her gift – it felt like manga, and it was… _Ah,_ she thought _,_ glancing in Riko’s direction. _You comment on a cute girl one time – one time! – and you end up getting yuri_.

“ _Zura!_ ”

Before she knew it, Yoshiko was enveloped in a hug from her oldest friend. “Yoshiko, this cake is amazin’! Where’d you get it?”

“Oh, I made it. Well, Mari helped too. Actually, I just picked the recipe and decorated it. I tried to help making it but it went wrong, and I sort of… ended up covered in it.” Hanamaru giggled a bit, picturing the scene in her head. “But anyway, by what sorcery did you discover that it was from me?”

“Don’t be silly. Who else would be callin’ me Zuramaru on the icing?” Yoshiko’s face was a picture – after all that effort making the gift, she’d failed to keep her secret. “Did you get to try any of it?”

“No, we didn’t have any spare ingredients after I ended up wearing the first cake.”

“Oh no! Here, have some!” Hanamaru lifted the fork to Yoshiko’s mouth and fed her a piece.

 _Oh wow,_ thought Yoshiko. _I’ll have to have this again._ “Such a divine taste! I’m at risk of being purified.”

“Right? I’m really strugglin’ not to keep it all to myself. Thanks so much!”

Hanamaru leapt forward for another hug – and if that hadn’t turned Yoshiko red, the knowing wink from Mari certainly did. For some reason, Yoshiko suddenly had the urge to read her gift.

“So anyway, ain’t you gonna tell me what your gift was?”

“Ah… ahaha…”

“Yoshiko, are you okay? You look like you’re burning up. Yoshiko…?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still working on the angsty third year fic, but this one was a real flash of inspiration. My friend sent me some cute pictures of Hanamaru with food yesterday, and I suddenly got this idea of Yoshiko trying to make her a cake. This one's definitely been my shortest turnaround from concept to completion. Hope you enjoy it!


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